zenosanalytic reblogged
do u ever really think about the Holy Grail filming though
- the primary camera which had been specially designed broke on their very first day of filming so everything was delayed as hell while they sourced a new one
- they couldn’t get Scotland to let them use its National Trust castles so they ended up using the same one for every single fucking castle and/or used paper cutouts
- the only reason they used the music they did was because after a whole fucking soundtrack had been written they realised their budget didn’t actually expand to an orchestra, so they used stock music and the only actual original Python song in the whole deal is Knights Of The Round Table
- Graham had delirium tremens during his very first take, suddenly realised and admitted that he was an alcoholic, and was consequently hammered out of his brain for the remainder of filming so he wouldn’t go into the DTs again
- as a result of this he constantly picked fights with the other Pythons, extras and random hotel staff
- and constantly forgot half his lines
- and ran ass naked up and down hotel corridors yelling “Betty Marsden” until Michael asked him to stop so he could sleep (and so Michael then woke up to a note pushed under his door reading “with love, Betty Marsden”)
- but miraculously still no one realised Gray’s drinking was making him so ill and so Michael’s diaries are full of random excuses for why he was shaking his ass off every morning (“we were up v high today I think Gray was scared” “I didn’t think it was that cold but Graham was shivering” “gosh tensions are running so high Gray was so mad with us he was literally shaking”)
- the Terrys tried to codirect and fell out over literally everything
- and consequently constantly reshot each other’s takes behind the other’s back
- John kept getting upset because he doesn’t like being dirty and/or cold and they were in fucking Scotland and “there wasn’t enough hot water for a shower”
- John and Eric consequently switched hotels from the rest of the cast and crew so John could get his fucking shower
- they were all wearing knitted “armour” and I reiterate this was fucking freezing wet Scotland so they all froze half to death and had to keeping shooting anyway
- and John got so pissed at Terry Gilliam’s directing style (“treating us like pieces of paper”) that he eventually essentially told him to fuck off, so filming was delayed even further so Terry G could go and be offended and cry and sulk by a wall
the highest grossing British comedy film of all time, everyone.
This is the most British description of film making I’ve ever heard, and while amused and new to most of these facts, absolutely none of them surprise me in the least.